Judge Prepares To Rule In Murder Trial Of Company Officials

June 11, 1985|By Ray Gibson.

Three corporate officials charged in a landmark murder case were described by a prosecutor in closing arguments Monday as having disregarded human life ``for the sake of profit.`` But their attorneys contended that there was ``overwhelming doubt`` that they had committed criminal acts.

After weeks of hearing testimony, Judge Ronald J.P. Banks of Cook County Circuit Court said he will issue a verdict Friday in the trial, the first in this country involving corporate officials accused of murder stemming from a work-related death of an employee.

Three officials of Film Recovery Systems Inc., a defunct Elk Grove Village firm, were charged as a result of the Feb. 10, 1983, death of Stefan Golab, a 61-year-old Polish immigrant. Golab died allegedly of cyanide poisoning after working over a vat where silver was being extracted from used photographic film. Cyanide was used in the process.

In his closing remarks, Assistant State`s Atty. Jay Magnuson charged that the three officials ``chose to play the Russian roulette game`` with worker safety.

``What you have heard for eight weeks,`` he told Banks, ``may be a novel legal case, but it is an old story--a story of the uneducated versus the educated, the privileged versus the underprivileged, the rich versus the poor. . . .``

Magnuson said the evidence showed the ``callousness, the disregard of knowledge, the exposure of human life, all for the sake of profit.``

Samuels said that there wasn`t even a lethal level of cyanide in the plant, that the plant wasn`t run any differently than other such plants in the country and that there was serious doubt about whether Golab died of a heart attack or cyanide poisoning.

Calling O`Neil`s rise to the corporate head of the company the epitome of the ``American dream,`` Royce said, ``That industry and that process, in my opinion, is what is on trial in this case.``

Royce and Samuels asked Banks to use common sense in deciding whether O`Neil, Kirschbaum and Rodriguez would subject workers to a lethal hazard, because they also worked in the plant.

``If my client knows or has reason to believe there is a lethal gas in the air that can kill him, do you think he would be there? I ask you, I plead with you, treat my client as a reasonable man. Most reasonable men don`t try to hurt themselves`` by working in the plant, Samuels said.

``They didn`t know their operation would kill Mr. Golab. . . . Their knowledge was that nobody would die if they worked in that plant. Danny Rodriguez and Steven O`Neil are reasonable men,`` Royce said.

The defense attorneys argued that no worker had ever complained to government agencies about plant conditions and that ``at no time has there been any official action taken against Film Recovery because of the air`` in the plant.

Magnuson countered that there was a lethal cyanide level and that the plant was operated illegally. He said plant officials expanded their operation, despite warnings of danger to workers, and moved their offices farther from the lethal fumes.

``The evidence that cyanide came to lethal levels is that Mr. Golab is dead and is no longer with us,`` Magnuson said. ``If this process was lawfully being used, a worker would not be dead and you wouldn`t have 14 counts of reckless conduct before you.``

In addition to the murder charges, the officials face reckless conduct charges for alleged injuries to workers.

``When the system grew, when the quest for profits grew, they moved farther and farther away from the hazards,`` Magnuson said. ``The only thing that was maximized was their profits.``

He said the three men vicitimized Mexican and Polish workers who wouldn`t inform authorities because they feared deportation due to

questionable alien status.

``If someone is here from Mexico illegally or someone is here from Poland who overstated his visa, you don`t see them go to the U.S. and make a complaint. . . .``